16th September 08 marks MM Lee Kuan Yew's 85th birthday. I grew up at the edge of the precipice of Generation X era, where Singapore is seeing an economic revolution and modernisation at an unprecedented speed.
In school and throughout my adult life we grew up surrounded by the rapid changes and modernisation that never seems to have lose its steam. The drive down Raffles Place and Orchard Road reminds me a lot of many other modern cosmopolitan cities in other modern cities. But the best of any drive is down the Benjamin Sheares Bridge where you see the ever changing Singapore sky landscape.
I was together with my friend, from Malaysia who was here in Singapore under the government scholarship's exchange programme for his six months training when we we driving down ECP towards the city. His last visit in Singapore was almost 10 years ago when we were still very young then and unaware of the changes around us. As we drove up the Benjamin Sheares Bridge our conversation throughout the journey fell into a unceremonious silent as his eyes were transfixed out of the window into to the skyscrapers and the activities at the construction sites of the new Marina IR. As I looked at him, a sudden surge of pride fell on me as I saw how captivated he was and awed at the sight that he was witnessing. Kuala Lumpur, is no backward city herself and I have been to the Malaysian's capital on many occasions but I can see how vast a differences that exists between the two cities. As we passed through the city my friend finally broke his silence and spoke of how amazed he was with the development in Singapore. We began to exchange history notes and the achievements of the leaders of both nations.
MM Lee's contribution to Singapore is indisputable and it could be safely said that he was the right person at the right time to bring Singapore through the tumultuous period of Separation, Communist insurgents and Racial disunity. He was also the same person that see Singapore through the economic revolution from a industrial based economy to an innovation based economy. Many pundits and mongers out there would be quick to criticize his style of management as being an iron-fisted and throat wranglers but I would think that if it is not because of his decisiveness and seemingly unilateral decision, Singapore will never be where it is now.
MM Lee has made an unparalleled contribution to the development of Singapore. Indeed only a few leaders have had such a singular impact on their country's history as MM had. Under MM Lee's leadership Singapore became a stable and secure independent country moving itself from a state of extreme economic vulnerability to its current position of as the region's most vibrant and independent economy whose people enjoy standards of education, health and welfare among the highest in the world. However a significant quality of MMM Lee's leadership that not many other leaders could replicate or have ever been successful was his relentless and extraordinary success in eliminating corruption in the government.
The Generation Y, those born after 1976 may not be so receptive or aware of what MM Lee's contributions to our life are as they grew up in a relative stable environment and progression with the perception that progression is a normal cycle in a country's evolution. Without the history lessons in school they may not be aware of the sacrifices and challenges that MM Lee and his old vanguard of man of steel.
To MM Lee on his 85th Birthday, we wish you good health for many more years to come and a big thank you to you.
